


Thank you for looking after me..........

by SavhCaro



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Christmas Presents, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 16:18:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17062964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SavhCaro/pseuds/SavhCaro
Summary: Starts off at the end of "Risk" S1E16.........





	Thank you for looking after me..........

 

Watching Joan and the people in the camp enjoy the food trucks, Reese felt somewhat better than he had that morning. He'd been tormented by the danger he’d put Joan and the others in, when he brought Adam Saunders to hide out at the camp. There were good people in the camp that were down on their luck and didn't need to have their lives in jeopardy any more than they already were being out on the streets day after day.

He still remembered how good it was to get an unexpected hot meal. Those days were few and far between on the streets unless you went to a shelter. So many in the camp were too proud and too independent to visit the shelters unless they were starving. Maybe he'd talk to Adam and his uncle about coming here once or twice a month. He had the money to pay for it. Harold paid him very well and he didn't really need that much money himself. He was happy in his one room flat. 

The monthly visits by the food trucks became a pattern that seemed to sit well with everyone. He’d been able to visit Joan every once in awhile since he'd been working for Harold but now he had a reason to show up on a slightly more regular basis. He enjoyed spending time with her and the others he'd grown close to during the four months he'd lived with them. Joan seemed to enjoy his visits and Joe and Mack always appreciated the beer he brought.

Joan had refused John's offer of actual money to help her get by, just like she’d refused to be set up in an apartment when he became gainfully ‘employed’. He wanted to take care of her like she had taken care of him but she was adamant about not accepting anything from him. She was a very stubborn woman! She’d been on the streets for quite a while and was at home there. He’d finally given up offering money, instead he brought things he knew the community could really use……..blankets, coats, OTC medicine, things that were hard to come by living on the streets.

The only thanks she’d accepted for taking care of him was words. No money, no gifts…….just words, words of thanks. But then again words were the foundation of their relationship. Her words had talked him off of that bridge when he’d been determined to end it all after he'd returned from New Rochelle. Her words had pulled him from that edge so many times during those months that she’d taken care of him. Her words had helped him make peace with his past…..with the things he’d done and, more importantly, to accept the one thing he had not done………..protect and save Jessica. 

Joan had told him that his words had helped her just as much. He had helped her understand what her son had gone through when he returned from ‘over there’, such a changed and lost young man. And to understand why her son had made the decision he had………..to end his own life. She’d told John that taking care of him helped her deal with her inability to care for her son. When her son had come back, he just wasn't the same. She came to realize that he’d been lost to her before he’d even come back home. She had not understood how desperately ill he was, mentally and emotionally and had not been able to care for him as she felt a mother should. A parent should never outlive their child. Her guilt in failing her son had been deep. She felt indebted to John for giving her a chance to make up for the lack of help she was able to give her son. In her eyes, she and John had saved each other.

.  
_________________

During one of his visits with Joan, John finally come up with an idea of how to truly thank Joan in a way that she could not refuse. It was going to take considerable work on his part but it would be worth it in the end.

Most of the time John was able to coordinate his visits to see Joan with the day the food trucks visited the camp. At the end of John’s visits, he and Joan would walk together for a couple of blocks, just to get some privacy. That was the one thing you really couldn’t have in the camp. Blanket walls don’t keep out sound. The walks were slow and comfortable, talking about a wide range of subjects, mainly about Joan and her day to day life. John was still good at keeping his ‘other life’ separate. 

During one of his visits, when they were taking their usual walk around the neighborhood, John paused for a moment.

"Joan, I just realized you never told me your last name." That brought Joan up short. 

Puzzled Joan looked up at John, trying to figure out where that question had come from.

"That's not something most of us who live on the streets care to share with anybody, John. Too much past that you're trying to get away from is tied up in a last name."

Not getting the answer he needed, John tried again. "Well, I'm not just anybody am I?" he said with a smile.

"No, no you're not. But you've never told me your last name either, John." 

John's eyes widened momentarily, then his facial expression returned to normal, trying to cover his surprise. He'd been trapped by his own question. And she was right. He had not told her his last name. But then again she'd never asked him. Apparently this was an 'unwritten rule' on the streets that he’d overlooked. But he needed her last name to accomplish what he wanted to do.

Giving her his most engaging smile, he said "I'll tell you mine if you'll tell me yours..." Now it was Joan's turn to be surprised and suspicious. She changed the subject without giving him an answer as they continued their walk back to the camp.

_________________

The Monday before Christmas, John drove a truck up to the warehouse where Joan’s community was camped out. Climbing down out of the driver’s seat he was surprised there was nobody outside. He wondered where everybody was. He walked around the truck and towards the open warehouse door. Folks finally came streaming out and he was met with friendly handshakes, slaps on the back and quite a few hugs. Living on the streets had taught all of them to be wary of anything out of the ordinary…..and the paneled truck he’d driven up in was definitely out of the ordinary. Now curiosity was the rule of the moment.

Walking around to the back of the truck, John opened the doors and climbed in. Grabbing a box he looked for Joe and Mack. Waving them over, he told them to take the boxes inside and set them out on the floor but to wait to open them till all the boxes were out of the truck. It took about thirty minutes to get them all out. They formed a nice big stack in the warehouse and everybody was extremely curious to know what was in them.

John went looking for Joan and brought her to the area in front of the boxes. He waited til everybody had quieted down.

“These are boxes of Christmas gifts for everybody here. It is my way of saying thank you for taking me in when I needed help. Thank you for accepting me as part of the community. You have all been good friends to me. There are warm winter clothes in these boxes, for men, women and children. There are enough for everybody. Trade things back and forth til everybody is warm and comfortable. There are some Christmas sweets that I was told would be appreciated also.” The roar of approval was even louder at the mention of the sweets.

“Most of all I would like to publicly thank Joan for taking a chance on me. I came with nothing and she gave me everything.” John gave Joan a bear hug in front of everybody. Joan, not used to such public displays of affection, hugged him back with a surprised look on her face. Stepping back, she was smiling ear to ear. She'd known he was a good man from the very first time she’d seen him and he’d never proven her wrong.

“Mack, you and Joe take charge of giving out the gifts. Make sure everybody gets what they need. I’m going to take Joan out with me for a little while.”

__________________________

Sitting in the all night diner, John and Joan spent a relaxed evening chatting. Not worrying about anybody or anything. It was warm inside with only a few other patrons. Joan's slightly shabby clothes didn't stand out too much, not that that had ever bothered her. She was always comfortable in her own skin.

Over coffee and a dessert they sat in companionable silence. John decided that now was the perfect moment to truly thank Joan for all that she’d done for him. To give her something he felt that she would not refuse. It had taken some digging and help from Harold. And it had also taken some help from Zoe. He felt that this was a perfect Christmas gift that was also a thank you gift.

Reaching into his pocket with his left hand, he pulled out a small black jewelry box and kept it hidden under the table. He stretched out his right hand and gently grasped Joan's hand pulling it towards the center of the table. Startled, Joan looked across the table at John with a puzzled frown on her face.

"Joan, I have never been able to thank you enough for what you did for me. I've tried lots of ways to express my thanks but you won't accept anything I offer! Even things that I know you need! But I have finally found something to show you how much you mean to me and how thankful I am that you never gave up on me."

Pulling his left hand out from under the table, John carefully set the small jewelry box in Joan's hand and gently closed her fingers around it. 

Opening the box, Joan was surprised to see a small, relatively plain silver locket on a chain. Looking up at John she shook her head slightly in confusion. A necklace? for her? Not a good gift for someone who lived on the streets, just made her more of a target for muggers. 

She pushed it back toward John's hand, shaking her head even more vehemently.

"Joan, please. Open the locket." John asked quietly.

John's look was enough to get her to open the locket.

With shaking hands she found the clasp and the locket sprang open. Inside were two pictures. Her hand flew to her mouth, muffling the soft sound of shock. The hand holding the locket, began to shake. She stretched out and clasped John's hand tightly. Never taking her eyes off of the pictures she whispered, "Oh Johnny." At that moment, John knew he’d done the right thing. Joan had only called him Johnny once, when she had cried out a mother's pain in his arms, that first time when she told him about her son. That was when their deep emotional bond had formed.

She looked up into John's face. He was looking at her with all the love she felt for him reflected back. Tears came to her eyes as she looked back at the locket. Inside were two pictures of her son, Danny. 

She’d had nothing of her son because of living on the streets. Nothing. No pictures, no keepsakes from when he was young. All these years, all she had was her memory of him. Her last memory was of a wild-eyed lost young man with dirty hair and a long unkempt beard. He’d become so withdrawn and combative that he'd been run out of the street community where they lived. She never saw him again until after he ended his own life and she had to identify him in the morgue. 

The locket contained 2 pictures. One was a high school picture and one was his military picture. Her boy, her baby. Closing the locket she held it tightly in her hands and looked at John. Tears slowly ran down her face but her smile was beautiful.....because it came from her heart.

"Merry Christmas, Joan" John said with a matching smile.


End file.
